At 86, or in his 87th year, as he insisted his age be labelled, he was old enough to remember the hard times of the Great Depression and how members of his generation had to work hard to make something of themselves.

They were object lessons the local lawyer never forgot, said his son, and he did what he could to improve the life of his community.

"It was his generous heart," Jeff Cairns said about his family's $6-million donation to Brock University's bioscience research centre. "That is where it came from. His generous heart."

Even so, the businessman in Cairns also saw giving as an investment.

"He would say that to me often," said Brock president Jack Lightstone. "He did not see this as charity to the university. He saw it as an investment in the future of Niagara, to help make Niagara a better place."

Cairns, chairman of Charlesway Corp. Ltd. and a lawyer and founding member of St. Catharines law firm Chown Cairns, passed away Wednesday morning after a fight with cancer.

Jeff Cairns said his father had been coping with cancer for sometime but recently the disease got the upper hand.

Lightstone said he and Cairns had many long talks about the future of the region and what it would take to build a better tomorrow for Niagara. Without Cairns, Lightstone said, the bioscience complex, which now bears the family's name, would not be standing.

"Without the Cairns family, we would be well short of the capital funds that Brock had to raise," Lightstone said.

However, what Lightstone said he will truly miss are long talks with Cairns about one of the man's great passions - boating.

Although the pair would have heady talks about reshaping Niagara, they bonded over their love of boats.

"He was a truly gentle man and I am going to miss him for the human being he was," Lightstone said.

Jeff Cairns said his father's love of boating started as a teenager when he built his first kayak and paddled it across Martindale Pond. As he got older, he stopped building his boats in favour of having them made for him, but he never lost the passion for riding the water.

"I don't know which he loved more, boating or golf," Jeff Cairns said, noting his father was good enough at golf to complete a course with a score the same as his age.

Although the Osgoode Hall graduate retired in 2003, allowing Jeff Cairns to run Charlesway, Cairns stayed on as company chairman of the investment firm.

"He loved the work. He was a businessman and he came to work every day," said his son.

He said Cairns, who served 18 months in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War, was also a member of the Honorary Company of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment.

A funeral service for Cairns will be held on Nov. 4 at St. George's Church at 1 p.m. Visitations proceeding the funeral will be held at the church on Nov. 2 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Nov. 3 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.